In an October 10 state­ment com­mem­o­rat­ing World Day Against the Death Penalty, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon (pic­tured) urged the glob­al abo­li­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and called the death penal­ty inef­fec­tive and coun­ter­pro­duc­tive as an anti-ter­ror­ism tool. Saying that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment not only ​“has no place in the 21st cen­tu­ry,” Secretary-General Ban also not­ed that exe­cu­tions of ter­ror sus­pects have been coun­ter­pro­duc­tive: ​“Experience has shown that putting ter­ror­ists to death serves as pro­pa­gan­da for their move­ments by cre­at­ing per­ceived mar­tyrs and mak­ing their macabre recruit­ing cam­paigns more effec­tive.” Ban said that, “[t]o be legit­i­mate and effec­tive, counter-ter­ror mea­sures, like all secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions, must be anchored in respect for human rights and the rule of law.” In par­tic­u­lar, he cri­tiqued vague anti-ter­ror­ism laws that states have used as a pre­text to tar­get polit­i­cal dis­si­dents: ​“Let us be clear: par­tic­i­pa­tion in peace­ful protests and crit­i­cism of a gov­ern­ment – whether in pri­vate, on the Internet, or in the media – are nei­ther crimes nor ter­ror­ist acts. The threat or use of the death penal­ty in such cas­es is an egre­gious vio­la­tion of human rights.” At a con­fer­ence in Geneva held in con­junc­tion with the World Day Against the Death Penalty, UN human rights experts decried the swift and unfair tri­als and death ver­dicts often hand­ed down in ter­ror­ism cas­es and empha­sized the height­ened need for rig­or­ous legal safe­guards in ter­ror­ism cas­es. ​“Executions car­ried out with­out adher­ence to the strictest guar­an­tees of fair tri­al and due process­es are unlaw­ful and tan­ta­mount to an arbi­trary exe­cu­tion,” three UN Special Rapporteurs said. ​“We have called on those gov­ern­ments once and again to halt such exe­cu­tions and to retri­al the defen­dants in com­pli­ance with international standards.”

(“On World Day against Death Penalty, Ban says prac­tice ​‘has no place in the 21st cen­tu­ry’,” UN News Centre, October 10, 2016.) Learn more about World Day Against the Death Penalty here. See International.

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